The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

We recently asked our cracker-jack researcher Lara Feghaly to decode the 10 most substantive articles on confidence that she could find. And to do the same with the book The Confidence Code. What she discovered is startling and crucial for women's career advancement. And we've turned it into an infographic for you.

The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Study is out - and Leading Women's research is in and neither is great news for companies without a leadership development program for their Millennial women: Deloitte research says: “This year’s survey shows that women are equally likely as men to rate 'opportunities for career progression and leadership roles' as a major factor for staying at or leaving a job.” “Millennials want to work for organizations that have a purpose beyond profit, and they want those organizations to provide opportunities to develop leadership skills. These may be the two most important factors in creating job satisfaction and long-term loyalty, especially among Millennial women.” “This year’s survey shows women (67 percent) are slightly more likely than men (64 percent) to leave their employers within the next five years. One reason could be that 48 percent of female respondents say they are 'being overlooked for potential leadership positions.'”

When it comes to overcoming mindsets that cause the leadership gender gap, one of the practices that we recommend is to require recruiters (internal and external) to deliver diverse slates of candidates for key positions. While companies often focus on senior positions, we recommend this practice be implemented for positions above the diverging point (the point at which the % of women begins to decline and that of men increases).

We work hard with clients to engage managers and executives in actions to close the leadership gender gap. During one of our multi-month leadership programs, the managers (most often men) who have nominated the women participants join us for 3 major topics: What is Leadership?, The Missing 33%™ and Make the Most of Mentoring™. It's an effective way to address several gender dynamics - including the powerful one we call "Men's Culture of Mentorship/Sponsorship."

Chances are your corporate initiatives to advance women have been successful in moving women into middle management. However moving women into senior and executive positions often presents a greater challenge.

Keep your eyes open for our colorful "white" paper on women's advancement. In the meantime, did you see these?

Spotting (and Developing) Leaders! Thanks to Nneka C. who last month pointed us to the HBR article on 21st Century Talent Spotting because of the alignment between the model in one of the sidebars and Leading Women's definition of leadership. For over 14 years, we've been defining leadership as "using the greatness in you to achieve and sustain extraordinary outcomes by engaging the greatness in others."

In spite of decades of research identifying organizational barriers to women's advancement and strong business cases for getting more women into leadership positions, we continue to run into organizations (sadly often HR executives) who resist calls to take action to close the gender gap. One organization we know of treated their women's initiative leaders in the same way that our colleagues were treated back in the 1970s (when women's initiatives WERE a "futuristic social experiment").

Kudos to three of our clients, Turner Construction, DHL Global Forwarding EMEA and Alcatel-Lucent. Here's why: As part of its program for high potential women, Turner invited executives and the women's managers to presentations on The Missing 33%™ and the importance of PIE Mentoring™. Both sessions gave the managers insights into the subtle ways that men are often groomed for senior positions, but women aren't.